Ref: EngSci-BIO-02

Deadline: Applications will be accepted at any time until the position is filled.

One of the major challenges for tissue engineering is to make tissues that have properly functioning blood and lymphatic vessels that enable a fast and reliable integration of the implantable tissue engineering constructs with the body part they are transplanted in. Within this project we will develop mathematical models for the development of blood and lymphatic vessels with the aim of understanding what are the mechanisms that influence their development.

Lymphatic system development has been linked to fluid movement patterns and biochemical gradients in the tissue. There is strong experimental evidence that lymphatic vessels develop along pre-existing fluid flow channels in the tissue. Currently there are no models which are suitable for preferential fluid flow channel development in tissues. Such a model will be developed as part of this project taking into account the fact that living tissues are multiphase elastic media, influenced by spatio-temporal fluid and chemical gradients. In the second stage of this project we will investigate how the development of lymphatic and blood vessel networks interacts by taking into account not only fluid and tissue mechanical factors, but also chemical signaling factors that blood and lymphatic endothelial cells sense.

The final stages of this part of the project will involve modelling immune and cancer cell trafficking inside the developing lymph and blood vessel system in order to elucidate the factors controlling the immune response and cancer metastasis.

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Dr. Tiina Roose, Bioengineering research group, Email: t.roose@soton.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 2380 59 2374.